I saw Lakshya (meaning goal) yesterday for the first time. It is an India war film revolving around the life of a person ( Hrithik Ro...

The Tesco South Korean Story – The Customer Can Lead to Marketing Hacks

Tesco Homeplus had emerged as a strong player in the grocery
retail market in South Korea. However it was at the 2nd position and
was looking at a way to reach the top position without increasing the number of
stores and overheads associated with them.

They started thinking of what problems and changes customers
were facing in their daily lives. The 2 most significant ones were that smartphone
usage was growing rapidly and also that free time was becoming scarce.

The company decided to use both of these observations and
came up with a strategy to take the store to the customer rather than vice
versa. They created ‘Virtual Marketplaces’ in locations where people generally
waited everyday. Using their smartphones, customers could simply scan the products
they were interested in and could complete the purchase online itself. The goods
were then delivered directly to the customers’ homes.

The
company was able to use 2 factors which were not related to each other and
helped convert the customer’s waiting time into shopping time. The sales of the
company increased instantaneously and it became the largest online retailer and
a close 2nd in the offline space.